Saturday, January 31, 2015

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

ZH-05 OICW

By Blitzo

In the past week, a rush of new information and photos have come to
light concerning the PLA's OICW (Objective Individual Combat Weapon),
dubbed ZH-05. Speculation is rife that the weapon is due to be
officially declassified and/or reveal an in service status.

Caption: You know a weapon is set for public knowledge when it's at the forefront of a stage commemorating the PLAMC.

Indeed,
previous rumours of Aden deployed PLAMC being armed with ZH-05 appear
to be substantiated in this latest round of "leaks".

An
OICW typically seeks to mate an assault rifle with an intelligent
grenade launcher in a complete package, with a computerised fire control
system to allow the small calibre grenade to burst at a predetermined
distance for maximum lethality. However, current and previous OICWs such
as the US XM-29 or Korean K11 are hindered by heavy weight and
cumbersome volume, and indeed, only the Korean K11 is currently in
service and represents the only OICW fully developed.

This
changes with the ZH-05, which not only features a sleek, assault
rifle-like profile, but is also remarkably light, at only 4.27kg
unloaded and 5kg fully loaded (compared to the K11's 6.1kg unloaded).
ZH-05 achieves its low weight through an innovative way of integrating
only the laser range finder and fire control system with the gun itself,
while keeping the optics modular and interchangable -- which not only
lightens the weapon dramatically but also confers greater flexibility
for the soldier who may wish to change between different scopes.

Caption:
An early picture of the ZH-05, possibly at an arms exhibit, which
surprised everyone both by depicting important specs, but also by the
ridiculously low total weight of 5kg, which weighs less than the K11
unloaded, and only a little more than a loaded battle rifle!

Caption: A leaked picture displaying the laser range finder and fire
control system integrated with the gun. Note the optics, which is
separable from the gun

But an even more ingenious -- and
pragmatic -- means of reducing weapon weight was through eliminating the
semi automatic grenade launcher and magazine for a single shot bolt
action mechanism. While at first glance this may appear a disadvantage
compared with other OICWs, it has been suggested the deletion of the
magazine was directed by the PLA itself after initial trials with
prototypes with five round magazines. This not only significantly
reduced weight, but also allowed users to fire different types of
grenades with greater ease.

The use of different grenade types is
significant, as the lethality of a 20mm round is greatly reduced with
the complicated electronics to allow a single grenade to perform
multiple functions from airburst, to impact detonation, whereas
separating individual grenades for airburst, impact, redues the
circuitry in each individual grenade, improving overall power.

Hongjian provides a succint summary of the ZH-05's 20mm development:

"1.
The first variant had a 5 round magazine, but the PLA requested the
single-shot, manually loaded bolt-action system not only because it
would be easier to change munition-type, but it also would enable the
designers to design single-purpose 20mm grenades. Compared to the XM-25,
XM-29 and K-11's multi-purpose grenades, each individual chinese 20mm
airburst grenade has only the airburst mode, the impact explosion
grenade has only the impact explosion mode and so on, which increases
the explosive load of those grenades as they reduce the room needed for
complex electronics. To compare, the XM1018 20mm grenade has both impact
and airburst modes, which consumes rougthly 60% of the grenade's volume
for electronics, battery, sensors, limiting the the size of the warhead
and reducing its destructive power.The PLA has hence very high
confidence in the wounding effects of their single-purpose 20mm airburst
grenades during urban battle, as it apparently performed better in
tests than even hand-grenades and approaching that of infantry mortars
(as in higher killing co-efficiency; note that chart below).

2.
Due to the single-shot, manually loaded bolt-action system, the soldier
can very easily chamber the individual grenade type required for the
specific tactical situation at hand, without having to play around too
much with the electronic-fuse settings. This increases the reliability
of the grenades and reduces the weight of the weapon overall due to
simpler electronics.

3. There are three kinds of grenades for the
grenade launcher: The conventional impact grenade, the airburst
grenade, and, what is called as the 'secret weapon'; the
'shotgun'-grenade. Latter is described as a grenade which will explode
into a barrage of shrapnels to the forward direction at a customized
range as set by the user. One can think of a small AHEAD (Advanced Hit
Efficiency And Destruction) round to imagine its underlying principle.According
to the users during field tests, this grenade is devastating in combat
and has a high suppression value in close urban battle.With these three grenade rounds available for this system, it gained its "three-in-one-launcher" nickname by the PLA.

4.
TOE wise, the standard PLA squad is already divided into two fireteams.
Traditionally, it is the RPG fireteam and the Machinegun fireteam. Now,
each fireteam will receive one ZH-05, with two in total per infantry
squad, raising the unit's overall combat efficiency dramatically."http://www.guancha.cn/Hong-Xibo/2014_02_23_208026_2.shtml

Caption: CAD image of the 20mm grenade launcher component with a preliminary magazine design, later removed

Caption:
Lethality rating of the 20mm airburst grenade compared with various
other weapons. It can be seen that the 20mm airburst has greater killing
co efficiency than a standard grenade, and approaches that of an
infantry mortar!

And some specs of the ZH-05's 20mm grenade, again translated by Hongjian:"20mm caliber1.2 grams of propellant85 grams119MPa chamber pressure219m/s muzzle velocity800m range and 29.46 meters verticalreaching the distance of 800m in 4.446 seconds with an arc of 7.02 degrees7.7 meters killing radius"

Pictures
depict ZH-05 armed soldiers with a new kit of body armour and a helmet
mounted eyepiece display suggest this is part of a greater drive for PLA
modernization. The eyepiece is thought to be connected to the weapon
via a cable, and possibly projects an image of the weapon's scope for
the soldier.

Certainly the PLA have experimented with such a function on existing rifles for many years.

Monday, January 26, 2015

The state-run Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that its leader Kim Jong-un conducted his front-line troops' during the winter drills, saying that a "powerful offensive means (a) rock-firm defense."The agency didn't say, though, where or when the drills were held.In a separate report, it condemned South Korean activists for their latest leaflet launches, while also claiming that the U.S. wanted to topple the regime.By that the North is talking about U.S. President Barack Obama's remark last week on how the spread of the Internet will eventually lead to North Korea's collapse.

As noted before by this blog, the South China Sea is not the PLAN Marine's sole AOR. As China is keeping close tabs on latest development from North Korea (here), the PLAN Marine, being the vanguard of the Chinese military, now has to familiarize themselves with Winter Warfare.

Training in cold region becomes normal for Chinese Marine Corps

(Source: China Military Online) 2015-01-12

The Chinese Marine Corps is loading equipment onto trucks on January 8, 2015, getting ready to head for a training base in northeast China for actual-combat cold region training. (Chinamil.com.cn/Liao Zhiyong)

GUANGDONG, January 12 (ChinaMil) -- A brigade of the Chinese Marine Corps made up of 1,000-plus people and 100-plus vehicles set out from the west of Guangdong province on the night of January 8, 2015, and headed for a training base in northeast China which is more than 4,000 kilometers away for the cold region training.

This is an onshore trans-regional actual-combat cold region training featuring the longest distance and longest time.

This is another actual-combat cold region training for the Marine Corps after its organic units headed for a training base for the first time last year, marking that the cold region training has become normal for the Marine Corps, according to Li Xiaoyan, commander of the cold region training and deputy chief of staff of the South China Sea Fleet of the Navy of the People's Liberation Army (PLAN).

This actual-combat cold region training will cover a number of subjects, such as troops assembly, mobile entry and stationing, technical and tactical basis under severe cold conditions, operation grouping and collaboration, and actual-troop confrontation in offensive combats on rugged terrains in cold region.

This cold region training features a more complicated environment, higher latitude, lower temperature, and wider maneuvering range compared with that of last year.

Some specific training subjects have been added based on the training of last year, and the troops will conduct the training under such complicated situations as long-distance maneuvering, unfamiliar region, and extremely cold weather, Li Xiaoyan said.

In addition, from transfer-in of the troops' degree of combat readiness to maneuvering and withdrawal, the training command post will organize experts and instructors from institutions and universities to set up a directing and evaluating team, so as to test the troops' long-distance maneuvering and total-region combat capability in an all-round way.The fully-armed officers and men of the Marine Corps are boarding vehicles to head for a training base in northeast China for actual-combat cold region training on the night of January 8, 2015. (Chinamil.com.cn/Liao Zhiyong)

Thursday, January 15, 2015

HONG KONG, January 15 (ChinaMil) -- "Break bricks with a bare hand", "Break a wood rod with body"... these are all the cool stunts of soldiers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), according to the report by the Hong Kong's South China Morning Post on January 14, 2015. However, their appearance on the open days of the military barracks and during the inspections of the leaders can be numbered now.

It is reported that such performance subjects will no longer be included in the appraisal on soldiers.

The PLA Daily reported that the Party committee of a marine brigade of the PLA Navy has decided to exclude a dozen of such subjects which are pleasant to the eyes but of no use from the training program, including various kung fu stunts and group motorcycle stunts, and replace them with daily training subjects such as live-ammunition shooting subject.

The decision is welcomed by the officers and men.

"I am finally liberated now," the report quoted Wang Xiaohui, member of the Marine Corps of the PLA Navy. Wang practised hard Qigong before joining the military, and showed his stunt "Break a wood board with head" many times after joining the military.

However, he was not performing well enough in some military training subjects, because he spent most of the training time on practising his stunts.

Now the brigade will spend more time on long-distance sniping, helicopter training, low-altitude bailout, machine gun shooting and other high-risk training subjects. Some subjects that were once removed from the training ground due to safety accidents have also returned to the training ground.

Ding Shufan, director of the Research Center of International Relations of Taiwan's National Chengchi University (NCCU), said this change will probably be promoted to all the troops of the PLA. "The new measure will help the PLA develop into a standard combat force. The kung fu stunts may look cool, but they are already outdated in modern wars today."

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the military to arrange the job rotation of military and political principal officers at grassroots units just a few days ago in order to enhance the Chinese military's combat capability and its political loyalty to the Communist Party of China.